China Clears Deutsche Bank To Underwrite Corporate Bonds

Deutsche Bank secured approval to underwrite corporate bonds in China as the market continues to open up to foreign investors and financial services players.

Reports in The Business Times on Thursday (July 12) said the Germany-based bank was cleared by the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) to underwrite corporate bonds sold by onshore and offshore issuers. The move comes a year after China began to allow foreign investors to invest in the market via Hong Kong, reports said.

“The ability to help offshore and onshore clients issue primary debt in China provides an important additional facet to our full suite of capabilities,” said Deutsche Bank Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Officer Werner Steinmueller in a statement.

Reports said foreign investors increased China onshore bond holdings by $24.3 billion in the first quarter of the year. China is looking to stem capital outflows and heighten the yuan’s stance in the global markets, reports added.

Earlier this month, reports in state-run People’s Daily said China’s Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan will be looking to heighten foreign market access, while separate reports in Reuters said Zhong pointed to the globalization of economics as an irreversible trend, and that China “will continue to defend the global multilateral trading system.”

Non-bank foreign players are also beginning to step into the Chinese market. Last month, reports in South China Morning Post said cross-border payments company WorldFirst is set to receive a license to operate in China, potentially beating out PayPal to become the first foreign payments player to enter the market.

Iris Pang, a Hong Kong economist, told Bloomberg at the time, “The domestic market is quite saturated with very strong domestic players, and it is relatively hard for foreign companies to get a piece of the pie.”